College Football: Can Northern Illinois’ offense top Bowling Green’s defense?

Wednesday

Dec 4, 2013 at 3:42 PMDec 4, 2013 at 3:42 PM

By Matt TrowbridgeRockford Register Star

DEKALB — No one can match Northern Illinois’ offense in the Mid-American Conference. It’s not close. The Huskies average of 542 yards is 56 more than any other team.

But Bowling Green is even more dominant on defense. The Falcons allow only 296.6 yards, 80 fewer than any other MAC team, and their 13.8 points allowed is 8.5 fewer than No. 2 Buffalo.

And as good as BG has been on defense, the Falcons have been even better lately, giving up an average of 4.3 points during the four-game winning streak that has them pitted against NIU in Friday’s 7 p.m. MAC title game at Ford Field in Detroit on ESPN2.

NIU (12-0, 8-0 MAC West) and Bowling Green (9-3, 7-1 MAC East) are two well-balanced teams that both rank in the top three in the MAC in scoring offense, total offense and scoring defense. But as much as both teams excel at pretty much everything, they are absolute bests at opposites: BG’s defense (ranked No. 5 in the nation in scoring and No. 7 in yards) vs. an NIU offense ranked No 4 in the nation in yards and No. 9 in points.

“They play with the right attitude, attack the line of scrimmage and force teams to run East and West,” NIU coach Rod Carey said.

They also know what they are doing. NIU last played Bowling Green two years ago and blew out the Falcons 45-14. An incredible 14 of the defensive players on BG’s two-deep roster that day (and seven more on offense) are still on the Falcons’ two-deep today. Just about every player on their defense is a three-year veteran.

“That part of it is huge,” BG coach Dave Clawson said in a teleconference. “It’s all the accumulated reps and starts that our players have had.”

And those players are all playing their best ball of the season now. NIU loves to run (318.9 yards per game, fourth in the nation, despite missing their top three running backs at times). That’s the way to beat BG; the Falcons gave up more than 220 yards rushing in all three of their losses.

But they’ve also allowed an average of only 57 yards rushing on 29 carries (2.0 average) in their last four games.

“Our four starting defensive linemen weren’t more than 60 or 80 percent the first two months of the season,” Clawson said. “We are healthier now on the D-line than we have been all year. You would never think you would be saying that going into your 13th game, but those four are fresh and healthy.

“Now we’re generating a pass rush, which we weren’t doing the first two months. If you generate a pass rush with four guys, it makes playing defense on the back end a lot easier.”

“They attack the line of scrimmage with their front four,” agreed NIU’s Carey, “and then on third down they’re not afraid to get after you with the blitz and play in man-to-man coverage. That group has played together for three years.”

Carey compared BG’s defense to Michigan State’s; the Spartans are ranked No. 4 in scoring defense and will play Ohio State for the Big Ten title on Saturday. NIU offensive coordinator Bob Cole compared the Falcons’ defense to Iowa’s, which is ranked No. 11 in the nation (18.8 points).

“Their defensive line is right up there with Iowa’s defensive line,” Cole said. “Same thing with their linebackers. (Iowa) is the best front seven we’ve seen all year, and they are as good as them, maybe better.”

They might have to be better for the Falcons to win their first MAC title in 21 years. NIU put up 30 points on that Iowa defense. No. 2-ranked Ohio State (34) was the only other team to do so. And both beat Iowa.